Department of Politics and International Studies

International politics of East Asia

Course Code:

15PPOC251

Unit value:

1

Taught in:

Full Year

This course is designed to provide students with a theoretically rigorous and comparative introduction to key issues in the contemporary international politics of East Asia. East Asia is defined as the states of the Northeast Asia (in particular, China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan), with two main external actors, the United States and Soviet Union/Russia who played a key role influencing the region’s international relations. Asia presents fascinating case studies in the study of international relations by bringing together three of the world’s largest economies (US, Japan, China), three of the UN Security Council’s permanent members (US, Russia, China) and the divided nations (China/Taiwan and Korea).

Objectives and learning outcomes of the course

The course aims to provide students with both a detailed knowledge of the specificregion/country as well as insights into the thematic political issues. At the end of the course students should be able to demonstrate that they:

can understand the major forces in the international relations of Asia from C19th to the present.

can analyse the points of conflict and cooperation in the region and the key outside actors.

can critically evaluate the past, current and future challenges in the region.

have familiarity with the existing theoretical approaches to analyse the inter-regional relations and foreign policy making of the major states in the region.

have developed skills for oral and written communication of their ideas.

Scope and syllabus

The course enables students to develop both area expertise and to apply disciplinary insights from political theory and international political theory to the comparative study of international politics. The course is taught in a lecture/seminar format. The schedule of lecture topics is as follows:

INTRODUCTION

1. East Asia as a regional entity (YK)

2. Themes and theoretical approaches (YK)

COLD WAR SYSTEM

3. Formation of the post-1945 system: domestic and international sources of state-building (YK)